A known way to transport materials is to use a transport device that has a conveyor. In some cases, one may wish to transport materials for a very long distance. One way to solve this problem is to use a very long conveyor.
However, this simple solution poses a problem. A conveyor has to move on something. Whatever that something is, it will cause friction. Each infinitesimal length of the conveyor will thus contribute a frictional force. As the conveyor becomes longer, the integral of the forces over the conveyor starts to approach the maximum tensile strength of the conveyor itself.
For this reason, when moving materials along a long distance, it is customary to have several conveyors adjacent to one another along the transport direction.
However transport devices of this type necessarily comprise transitions between conveyors. These transitions amount to gaps that can disturb the smooth flow of materials being transported.
It is usual to bridge these transitions using bridging structures such as transfer or container sliding elements, deflector elements, transfer stations, or deflector stations. Although these bridging structures serve to reduce the disturbance, they do not do so completely. The transport materials tend not to stand fully on the upper lengths of the transport elements as they pass across such transitions.